A Housing Solution: Lawyers for Tenants

Councilman Mark Levine spoke in September in support of legislation to offer legal assistance to lower-income tenants facing eviction.CreditCreditDave Sanders for The New York Times

Defending yourself in court might work in old movies or on reality TV, when the stakes are small and the judge is named Judy.

But in real life, in the face of dire circumstances — like being tossed from your home into the street — you need a lawyer. That’s why it was so important that the New York City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday a big increase in funding for legal services for tenants facing eviction in housing court.

The city already spends $62 million annually on civil legal services for tenants, as part of Mr. de Blasio’s larger push to preserve New York’s housing affordability. (In an age of skyrocketing rents, keeping people from losing their homes can be as important as building new moderately priced apartments.) Mr. de Blasio would increase that amount each year over the next five years — from an additional $15 million in the 2018 fiscal year to an additional $93 million in the 2022 fiscal year, for a total of $155 million that year.

The money is meant to guarantee free lawyers for tenants whose household incomes are below about $50,000 (for a family of four), and free legal counseling for those making more than that. It’s a victory for tenants and for the City Council, including Councilman Mark Levine, who has championed “right to counsel” legislation for years.

Early in his tenure, Mr. de Blasio reorganized the city’s scattered legal services programs and put them under one agency, with more funding. Now, on the brink of a re-election campaign, he can make a case that the emphasis was smart — the city’s existing legal services program has reduced evictions by 24 percent over two years — and that the increased financing will be money well spent.

Even as affordable housing grows scarcer and the gentrification tide makes many New Yorkers feel doomed to dislocation, one weapon for tenants has always been obvious, if expensive: lawyers. Landlords have deeper pockets than tenants, and they are often vicious in the tactics they use to forcibly, often illegally, clear renters out for redevelopment and gentrification.

At a time when America’s most powerful landlord, President Trump, has threatened to put legal services for the poor on the chopping block, New York City is pointing in another direction, toward justice for those who can’t always afford to pay for it themselves.